A Letter from Chris Suarez
I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP
Any time that I can spend out in the woods is time well spent. At 4am on Saturday I decided to slip out of the house without waking anyone up to catch the sunrise at the highest peak on the coast.
It was dark as I made my way up an old logging trail which would lead to a somewhat overgrown path up to the peak. I had been up once before during the day to catch the view. At some point in the dark I had gotten off trail as I found myself on the side of the mountain with no path and pretty deep in old growth. I had been listening for the sound of the ocean as I knew I wanted to be on the West side of the mountain and was pretty certain I was following that sound. Somehow my ears had deceived me, and I ended up on a lower ridge on the East side. In lieu of doubling back and finding the trail, I decided to just go straight up to get to the top.
After some slips, some cuts, some bruises, I arrived at what at first glance seemed like the top. I was above cloud level and the sun was just rising. I was considering it a win.
I took out my phone to take a few photos of the view and decided to pull up a map to see where I was on the mountain. The photos were awesome, the map however clearly told me I wasn’t at the top. The problem was I was sitting at a small plateau that definitely looked like the top, with no clear path to any higher point.
To make an hour long process fit into a simple blog post, I did finally find my way to a rather narrow ridge line and a few rock scrambles that I was able to climb to the eventual peak, marked by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey marker placed up at the top of the mountain in 1926. As I made my way back down I thought of the lessons learned.
1. With a little light and clarity, the path will be more obvious.
At times we will be in the dark. In order for me to get to the top for the sunrise, it required me to begin my trek a bit in the dark. Yes, I had a flashlight. No, I didn’t see the trail marker just one mile into my hike that would have led me to a fairly clear path up the right side of the mountain and directly to the peak. On my way back down with the sun shining and the fog lifted, I easily noticed the fork in the path that I had missed a couple hours earlier. At times our business lives and forks in the road are quite similar. Without clarity and the right light on any situation, it is easier to miss the pathway to success. It is easier to make a wrong turn or make the wrong decision.
2. If we are head down we often miss the right opportunity.
There were moments on my hike that I was so focused on the step ahead of me, that I completely ignored the path. I was so worried about making a misstep, tripping on a root or stone right in front of me, that I didn’t lift up my head enough to see all of my options. I could have ultimately been to the peak of the mountain a good hour earlier if I had stopped long enough - and regularly enough - to scan all of my trail options. Likewise in business, too often we are head down and working hard. At times working too hard to catch our breaths, take a moment, scan the horizon, and look at all of our options, all possible paths, and all current or future opportunities. Perhaps we are listening to the wrong people that are leading us down the wrong path. The sound of the ocean seemed to clear to me, so I continued towards it. Only to find out, it was just noise. Beware of the noise around you.
3. Once in a while we will need to backtrack, retreat a bit, slow down, or even feel like we are going backwards.
At a certain point in my hike I had to take a few steps backwards to find a turn I had missed. It never feels good to not be making forward progress or keeping forward momentum. But at times, the pause, the sidestep, or even a few steps backwards will lead us to our ultimate goal. Never let pride prevent you from your preferred future. That may be in the form of slowing down, investing in the right strategy, making less money in the short term, or even a possible partnership. At times slow is fast. At times backward is actually forward.
4. At times we think we are at our peak…when we clearly have more to see and higher to climb.
It would have been easy for me to believe I was at the top of the mountain, when in reality, I was about 200 feet below. In business, too often our quick success, or even just relative success, leads us to believe we have reached our peak. Maybe our business operates at a higher level than most, or we find ourselves at the top of the list in our industry year after year. Those around us convince us that we are winning, when in reality we are sitting on a beautiful plateau. Be careful that we don’t settle at the plateau, “200 feet below” our full potential.
5. The top is lonely, unless you bring people with you.
Arriving at the top of the mountain I had some time to reflect, some time to think, some time to write, some time to pray. And as I came back down the mountain, as amazing as the experience had been, I thought to myself, I can’t wait to share that view and that experience with someone else. And so the very next morning I brought my girls up to that same point. The top of anything is lonely. The top of your industry, the top of your peer group, the top of the mountain, the top of anything. Bring people with you. Being successful in business is meaningless, unless it is achieved with others. It is purposeless, unless built for others. It is arduous, unless accomplished with others.
It is lonely at the top, unless you find yourself there with your partners that have become your friends, your family, and your loved ones.
Chris